Walk in the Cemetary
by Higuchimon
Summary: [one-shot, Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 8, Round 5, Yami no Bakura x Dark Necrofear/Dark Necrofear x Yami no Bakura, Dollshipping] After the duel against Yami no Malik, the Spirit of the Ring wakes up inside a very strange world, with a stranger companion.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh  
**Title:** Walk in the Cemetery  
**Romance:** Dark Necrofear x Yami no Bakura  
**Word Count:** 2,395  
**Genre:** Romance||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Feedback:** All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Summary:** After the duel against Yami no Malik, the Spirit of the Ring wakes up inside a very strange world, with a stranger companion.

* * *

In three thousand years, he'd forgotten what pain was like. Using someone else's body as his vehicle gave him only the faintest sensations of it, something like a mild echo that he could ignore when he wanted to. He usually wanted to; pain did nothing for him. Pain of the body, at least. Pain of the mind, the heart, the soul: those he lived with on a constant basis.

He pushed them aside for now, though, in favor of examining this new pain. Every scrap of his flesh hurt and he didn't know how that could be. He didn't even _have_ flesh. He was little more than a ghost, once one got down to the bare facts of the matter.

Yet pain throbbed through him nevertheless. He pushed himself to his feet and examined himself. Nothing appeared to be hurt and he knew what injures should be like. He'd inflicted enough of them, after all.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this, he was aware that eyes were on him. They did not threaten him; they only watched and waited for him to realize who they were. His host didn't watch him; he was certain of that. His host wouldn't have _dared_.

Not to mention, he wasn't certain if his host could even be here. Wherever here was. He hadn't figured that out either. Cool mist stretched in all directions, including above and below. No ground was beneath him to stand on, but he stood nevertheless.

If he hadn't been dead, he would've thought he was. What else could this be but some form of hell?

He pushed the pain to the back of his mind; he could survive it and that was what mattered. Out of habit he drew in a breath and then began to look around, searching for whomever it was that watched him. They were well hidden in the mist, he gave them that much. But no one could hide from him unless he chose to let them.

He couldn't have said if he moved at all or if the mists chose to part and reveal the object of his search. It didn't matter. What mattered was seeing the person before him.

This wasn't whom he had expected. Granted, he hadn't expected anyone that he knew at all. Perhaps one of the judges of the dead or even the Devourer. He would have considered either of those to be more believable than who he saw before him now.

"Dark Necrofear?" Confusion edged his tone as he stared at the Duel Monster before him. She said nothing, instead bowing her head as he named her.

He circled around her, taking note of how alive she appeared to be. Dark blue skin, stitches here and there, the doll with the cracked skull in her arms: in all ways a perfect replica of the card he had played. If this were a dream (and how long had it been since he dreamed?) then it was an amazingly realistic one.

He stood before her again and crossed his arms, staring at her, trying to think of anything he could ask that she could answer. "What are you doing here?" Could she answer that? Would she?

All she did was shrug her shoulders. He frowned; there had to be more to it than that. "Where are we?" Perhaps she would know that if nothing else.

She freed one hand from holding the doll and made a complicated gesture that he didn't come close to understanding. He shook his head. "Try that again."

In obedience to his command, she set the doll down and this time was able to make the gestures with both hands. She included a quick flash of her eye lasers, and everything clicked in his mind.

"We're in the graveyard." That received a nod and she picked the child back up, a hint of a smile on her lips. What in the name of all insanity was he doing in the _card graveyard_? He could understand _Necrofear_ being there, she _was_ a card, and hadn't she been lost in that last duel anyway. But he had no business being here.

He glanced back at her and saw that smile was still there. It seemed to him that it said more than she was pleased; perhaps that she knew more than she wanted to tell of at the moment. That was probably true; she couldn't speak at all, so there was always more than she could tell.

"How do I get out of here?" If she knew where he was, then she might well know how he had arrived there and _why_ he was there in the first place. Even better, she might know the answer to his question.

That received a simple shrug, unfortunately. He ground his teeth; he didn't have time to hang around here forever. He was the _darkness_; he couldn't be trapped in this ridiculous artificial graveyard forever! There was a way out. All that was required was to find out where it was.

Perhaps if he were to contact his host and persuade him to play Raise Dead…

Memory filtered back in and he swore under his breath in five different languages, three of which were as dead as he was. He had lost the duel to Malik's dark side. That was probably _why_ he was in the graveyard and why he had hurt so much. Being hit by the Sun Dragon Ra had side effects. His host was somewhere else, probably between life and death in his own way, and unable to get access to a deck of cards.

That left him Dark Necrofear, and her abilities had nothing to do with bringing back the dead, only controlling the living. Which could be useful but it had nothing to do with what he needed now.

He glanced at her again and caught her looking at him in a way he didn't think anyone ever had. He didn't have the foggiest idea of how to describe it other than 'strange'. He'd never actually seen her preparing to shoot someone with her eye lasers, but he didn't think that was what she wanted to do. He didn't want to call the expression 'soft', since it wasn't, but it wasn't soulless and ready to slaughter either.

"What is it?" He didn't care that she couldn't speak. He wanted to know what was going through her mind. That look had to mean something, after all.

She stepped closer to him, that odd look in her eyes increasing somehow. He hadn't ever had someone look at him like that, not as far back as he could remember. Hate, fear, terror, loathing, those were the looks he was used to. Not this. Whatever 'this' was.

She freed a hand again and placed it on his shoulder, then jerked her head toward…something he couldn't see. He mentally shrugged; she wasn't going to hurt him, he was certain of that. Not that she could have even if she'd wanted to. But nothing barred him from walking along with her.

He set off in the direction she indicated and she kept up with him, her lips now turned up into a faintly pleased smile. When he peered through the mist enough he could see other monsters, ones that were somewhat familiar from the duel against Malik's shadow. How long did it take a monster to be called back from the graveyard once a duel ended, he wondered for the first time.

If Dark Necrofear knew, she said nothing about it, nor did she appear to be in any rush to leave this place. She continually stole glances at him as they walked along, that smile never leaving her lips. Something about it looked oddly familiar, the more he considered the matter. Where had he seen it before?

_Never toward me._ Bakura was certain of that. No one would ever dare look toward him with such …tenderness in their gaze. Tenderness meant softness and softness meant weakness. _Necrofear isn't weak._ She was one of the strongest monsters in his entire deck. If she could stand by his side in reality, she would be one of the strongest warriors that he knew. He could depend on her.

Yet that look was still there whenever he lifted his head to look at her. The more they walked, the more the sensation grew on him that they weren't actually _going_ anywhere. The mist never changed around them, nor did they appear to make any progress. They only walked.

"Are you taking me somewhere?" He dug his heels in and stared at her, wanting to know what was going on. Or at least to try to know what was going on. Necrofear paused, adjusted her doll, and considered the question. Bakura would have given a great deal for her to be able to speak just then.

Finally, she shook her head, then reached out and touched him on the shoulder once more. She didn't indicate they should go anywhere else; she was content just to touch him like that. Her hand was as warm as if blood flowed through her veins and that look still gleamed bright in her eyes.

"What do you want?" She could answer that. He knew that she could. He did wonder what he would do once she did.

Her brow furrowed and she squeezed his shoulder for a moment. Bakura opened his mouth to berate her for not answering, then closed it again. He hadn't lived all these eons without picking up a few points of body language.

"Me?" That received a nod and her smile widened just a little. There was nothing warm or pleasant about her expression either.

Perhaps that was why he found he liked it as much as he did.

"There's no point in asking you why, is there?" Bakura eyed her as he tried to figure out just what he wanted to do about this. He wasn't sure what he could do, for all of that, but he wanted some options nevertheless.

She shrugged in a careless manner and he doubted the thought had ever crossed her mind. He couldn't think of why it should have, either. A question did cross his, though. "Does anyone else use your card?"

Again she had to think about this. Her reply was an easily understood wiggling of her fingers. "A few people." She nodded, then gestured again toward him. "But you prefer me?" A nod from her.

He had to admit he approved of her taste. He preferred himself as well. Who wouldn't? Other questions circled and danced through his mind, but he couldn't think of just how she'd be able to answer them. In the end, perhaps they didn't matter.

Bakura started walking again and Necrofear walked beside him, her doll shifted to the other side to free her hand. They didn't touch, but on occasion she would point to something he couldn't see through the mist and they would go that way. He still didn't get the impression they were going somewhere in particular, but he followed her guidance regardless.

The walk could have taken up a minute, an hour, a day, or a week. Time meant nothing here. It was always that way in the realm of the dead, be the dead humans or monsters. Bakura knew that intimately well. The mists didn't change: until the moment when they did. They thinned and parted, revealing a large pair of doors before them. Bakura glanced at them, then at Necrofear.

"Do you know what these are?" He ignored the rest of the mist as it fluttered and swept around them, filled with the other remnants of his deck. Good servants, one and all, but not whom he wished to speak to right now.

Other than her nod, he could get little else out of her about what it was. So be it, then. He turned to the double doors and set a hand on them, pushing forward. He could see no locks or handles, but the doors didn't move no matter how hard he pushed.

"Locked." He could pick them, if he had something to do so with. That shouldn't be too hard. Once again, Necrofear's hand touched his shoulder and he tilted his head back to see what she wanted.

Once again, her eyes glowed with that undefined emotion. He tried to work through what she wanted. "Can you get the doors open?" That received a shake of her head. He frowned and started to stare at them some more, wondering where he could find suitable lock picks in this world, only to have her tap his shoulder once again, with more insistence this time.

"Yes?" That was what he wanted to say. The word ended up muffled as she bent down and pressed her lips onto his own. Bakura's eyes widened; for all that he'd done in three thousand years, this was something _new_. A kiss. A simple kiss between two sets of lips.

At first he thought to pull away and work on unlocking that door. But with each passing moment, he couldn't bring himself to do so. Not just yet. Another moment. Then he would do it.

Somewhere in those moments, as he lost track of them all, he realized that he was kissing her back. He didn't know why. It was an interesting sensation to say the least. Not quite like anything he'd ever encountered before.

Brilliant white light burst from behind him and he pulled away long enough to see the doors now wide open. He turned back to see Necrofear there, her doll in her arms as always, waving good-bye. The light grew brighter and brighter, to the point he couldn't see, and then he was outside: on top of Kaiba's blimp, just where he'd been when the duel with Malik's shadow had ended.

As he expected, he was back in his host's body. His host himself was there, trembling and confused, but Bakura paid the boy no mind for the moment. He pulled out his deck and wasn't surprised to find Dark Necrofear was the card facing him. He stared at her for a few moments, a small smile creasing his stolen features, then put the deck away. He looked forward to seeing her again someday, even if it was only in a duel.

**The End**


End file.
